Setting A Star Aflame
by Your Elegant Goddess
Summary: Emotions unvoiced, a love unheard.


**DISCLAIMER: Bioware owns it all!**

**So...I admit...I'm way in love with the idea of a female Shepard and Liara. So, here is my first story about them. Just a one shot about their feelings after being reunited but this doesn't include the shadow broker DLC. I just wanted to touch upon their feelings and kind of bridge gaps that I felt needed to be brought together. Anyways, here you go.**

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><p>A thousand blizzards could not compare to the icy aura Liara T'Soni now exhibited. She was no more the innocent and vulnerable scientist but a hardened information broker who seemed to have developed a taste for murder. Her eyes held no delicate shyness as it had before but were replaced by piercing, silvery blue eyes that seemed to weigh and analyze a person like a specimen upon a scale. Commander Vivere Shepard felt like she was that particular specimen and now her emotions, that had ridden the crest of excitement right before she reunited with Liara, had toppled over and left her feeling numb and confused.<p>

The resurrected commander, with shimmering liquid golden hair and eyes that looked like they were cut from brilliant jade, gripped the railing before her as her unseeing vision threw themselves over the expanse of busy Ilium. Stoic Samara and uneasy Tali stood behind their broken commander as Shepard silently pulled apart the remnants of her heart with her back turned to her comrades. Samara and Tali had witnessed the welcoming kiss between the commander and the ex-Asari scientist and watched how seamlessly that brief kiss had turned into a cold business transaction that sent the commander on a petty run around. They had also been audience to how casually Liara had talked of her dispatching Nyxeris and the look of unvoiced confusion and sadness that had flickered across their indomitable leader's face.

"Commander, shall we make our way to the Normandy?" Samara asked tentatively as a cold wind blew across Ilium, signaling the oncoming of evening.

Shepard brought her hands to her side and straightened her back as her eyes held onto the last glimpses of light that were beginning to be swallowed up by the pinkish horizon. She took in a deep sigh, nodded to her friends, and lead the way back to the Normandy.

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><p>Dr. Chakwas silently observed the solemn commander from behind one of the observation windows in the medical bay. The grey-haired doctor knew something was amiss with the blonde hero the moment she returned from meeting with Liara on Ilium but the commander had clammed up and proceeded to charge ahead through the weeks without her personal turmoil to affect her performance when it came to completing necessary tasks. However, just because time had passed did not mean that the commander's ebbing pain had gone away. Instead, the more she tried to hide it, the more depressed she became and this did not go unnoticed to the doctor. She marched out of the medical bay and stood before the commander, with her arms defiantly crossed against her chest.<p>

The commander had been staring at a bowl of untouched food for the past hour but her eyes flickered reluctantly back to life as they caught sight of the doctor and she forced a smile.

"Care to join me, Dr. Chakwas?" Shepard's voice came out uneasy and soft; a stark contrast to her usual vivacious and directing verbal expressions.

"You will follow me to the medbay." Dr. Chakwas' eyes hardened.

"I feel fine though."

"To the medbay now, Vivere Shepard!" Dr. Chakwas' voice became unusually stern, causing the young commander to blink a few times in surprise but acquiesced to the doctor's demands.

When the doors to the medbay had hissed shut behind her, Dr. Chakwas motioned for Shepard to sit across from her and a still silence engulfed the two.

"Is there something you needed, doctor?"

Dr. Chakwas rummaged through her drawer and presented Shepard with the bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy that Shepard had found for her. She placed one glass before Shepard and one before herself and began to pour the brandy into the empty glasses.

"Now, tell me what's going on with you." Dr. Chakwas said as her eyes urged Shepard to take a sip of the fizzling, pinkish beverage.

"Nothing is wrong." Shepard answered curtly as she downed the contents of her glass in one gulp.

"I know that you're not much of a drinker and for you to knock back a glass of brandy like that is just screaming to me that you need to do some talking. What happened on Ilium that has you so down, Shepard?"

The blonde sighed and her eyes lost their usual glimmer.

"I met Liara..."

"How did that go?"

"Not exactly as I had planned."

Shepard went into precise detail of what occurred between her and Liara and the doctor listened with a patience to put any therapist to shame.

"So, she isn't our usual shy, sweet Dr. Liara T'Soni from before I take it?" Dr. Chakwas asked as she sipped her drink.

"No, she's more like information broker and assassin all rolled into one. She has become more of her mother, in a way." Shepard raised her eyes from the floor and focused them on Dr. Chakwas with such ferocity that it made the doctor nearly spill her drink. "How is it that almost everyone has changed so drastically within the past two years? First, Ashley rejects me as a friend because I work for Cerberus, and Liara, the one person I really loved has turned into the cruel manifestation that Matriarch Benezia was before her demise. It feels like people have carried on and changed while I am stuck within the past, trying to piece back my shattered life to what it was before I died but..." Shepard's voice trailed off and she hung her head.

Dr. Chakwas felt her heart go out to the troubled woman and she placed a reassuring hand on Shepard's cold one.

"People change and move on for that is what life demands of us. You have to adapt to the changes and be the pillar of strength we all expect of you. I understand it is hard but when this is all done, you'll have time to rekindle the fires between you and Liara. Honestly, what good is a relationship if your life is constantly in danger? What if you two did re-establish your relationship and had a child while threats loom so closely by? In a way, perhaps Liara is merely acting cruel so you will steel your heart for what is to come." Dr. Chakwas said through motherly intuition.

Commander Shepard looked up from her feet and she gave the doctor a genuine smile as she rose from her seat.

"You're right doctor; my brooding does more harm than I thought, thank you. If you don't mind, I need to head out and do my usual run about the ship. Take care, Doctor." Shepard said as she gave the doctor a casual salute and turned on her heel to leave.

_So much rests upon your small shoulders, Shepard. But, you are unlike us and so you must be strong when other normal people cannot. _Dr. Chakwas thought to herself as she watched the retreating back of the fearless commander.

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><p>Commander Shepard stood before the suspended galaxy map, with her arms crossed against her chest and her emerald eyes staring sternly at the mystifying swirls of diamond-like stars caught up within the vaporous blue seas of a milky way. Her hair was still damp from the dense rain that bombarded Pragia and the Teltin Facility that Jack insisted she needed to destroy for the sake of closure. The commander gave no regard to the thoughts of a shower after the mission and she had made herself somberly to the galaxy map to stare at the one particular label that stood out beside a pulsating Omega 4 relay.<p>

The words 'SUICIDE MISSION' stood out starkly beside the blipping icon that was the doomed Omega 4 relay and Shepard had found herself staring at it after she had accomplished a mission. She realized that the more she accomplished, the closer she came to entering that relay and the word 'suicide' merely drove home the fact that she might die; again. This constant reminder of another possible demise for her caused depression to stir within herself but also a sense of ease overcame her. Perhaps she should just stay dead this time around and hope that no one tries to revive her again. Ever since she was brought back, one negative light gave way to another that set her apart from old friends due to her new 'employer'. What hurt the most was the changed Liara and how she seemed detached from her former self that it forced Shepard to perceive her like a corpse; an ice, cold husk of what she was before.

"Yeoman Chambers, is there anything else on our to-do list?" Shepard asked, with her back turned to Kelly.

"There are some minor assignments if you wish to pursue them." The red-head said with her usual bubbly attitude.

"The sooner we get them done, the sooner we can get to the Omega 4 relay."

"Uhm, can I ask something before I do that, Commander?"

Kelly's hesitation made Shepard turn to her.

"What is it?"

"Are you going to visit Liara before we head out to the relay?"

The Asari's name caused Shepard to wince internally but she showed no emotion upon her face, that was slightly marred by a couple of glowing scars upon her left cheek. She gave a few moments of thought and allowed her shattered heart and stubborn logic fight out a brutal battle within her as she weighed her options. With a sharp breath, Shepard turned back to the galaxy map and focused her glimmering eyes upon what could be her last mission.

"No."

"Aye, Aye." Yeoman Chambers said sadly.

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><p>Back on Ilium, Liara T'Soni was voraciously poring over the latest information on the shadow broker when a sharp pain coursed through her chest, and caused her to snap her attention away from her work. She brought a hand over her heart and confusion knit her eyebrows together as she stood up from her seat and gazed out the nearest window that over-looked Ilium. An odd wave of foreboding and worry filled her soul but she could not understand what caused such a reaction. For some reason, her mind wandered to Shepard and wondered about her welfare. She felt regret at the callous way she had tossed Shepard out of her office to go hack some terminals when she should have spent her first moments with the resurrected Shepard in a more intimate setting. However, she couldn't waste any time to cling to her lost love while revenge was emblazoned over her eyes and her heart.<p>

With a final look to the stars before she resumed her work, Liara T'Soni allowed her gentle side to peek through as she raised two fingers to her lips and pressed them lovingly against the window upon the spot she had watched Commander Vivere Shepard look out at the horizon after she had visited Liara many weeks back. Tears threatened to over-flow her eyes but Liara fought against them as she rekindled the fires to her vengeance and returned to her desk.

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><p><strong>So, the characters were a bit out of character but that was intentional to make the story flow. I just felt a little explanation about their feelings was needed here and there because I felt it was slightly missing from the game. <strong>

**Thank you for reading. Until next time.**


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